He killed Michael O'Dwyer on 13th March 1940, at a meeting held at Caxton Hall, Udham Singh fired at O'Dwyer who died immediately. He also fired shots at Zetland, the Secretary of State for India, injuring him but not seriously.
Gandhi and Nehru both condemned his act at the time.
Gandhi remarked that, "the outrage has caused me deep pain. I regard it as an act of insanity...I hope this will not be allowed to affect political judgement".
Nehru wrote in his newspaper National Herald: "Assassination is regretted but it is earnestly hoped that it will not have far-reaching repercussions on the political future of India"
Subhash Chandra Bose was perhaps the only leader of the independence movement who approved of Udham Singh's action.
Mass killing in Jallianwala Bagh proved a turning point in his life" After a bath in the sacred sarovar at Golden Temple,"Udham Singh took a silent vow and solemn pledge in front of the Golden Temple to wreak a vengeance on the perpetrators of the crime and to restore honour to what he saw as a humiliated nation."
